Fraud probe sweeps through Montreal city hall

The investigators drove quietly to the back entrance of Montreal’s city hall just after 4 p.m., some in unmarked cars, others in Sûreté du Québec squad cars, no lights flashing.

At least 10 officers in uniform and plainclothes jumped out and moved quickly and silently through the back doors into the ornate Old Montreal building that represents the seat of power of the city. Several headed directly to the computer room, others to the mayor’s office. Others still positioned themselves by the exits, and then the fire alarm sounded, followed by an alert asking everyone to exit the building.

But not everyone was allowed to leave.

So began an unprecedented raid on Montreal’s city hall Tuesday afternoon, part of a larger operation involving 125 officers that encompassed searches at a total of nine locations, including six borough halls and the headquarters of the former ruling party, Union Montreal. The borough offices targeted were also bastions of Union Montreal.

It was a co-ordinated sweep that began shortly after 4 p.m. Tuesday said Anne-Frédérick Laurence, a spokesperson for the Unité permanente anti-corruption.

Laurence confirmed that UPAC is probing allegations of fraud, producing false documents and abuse of trust as part of an investigation that has been ongoing since 2010.

Police have spoken to or are seeking to question a total of 25 people, including politicians and civil servants, she said.

“No charges have been laid,” Laurence added.

Officials with municipal party Vision Montreal said they were told the officials being questioned included Mayor Michael Applebaum, former mayor Gérald Tremblay, former executive committee member and current St-Laurent borough mayor Alan DeSousa, and former executive committee member Sammy Forcillo, now a councillor in the Ville Marie borough.

After Mascouche, St-Rémi and Laval, UPAC has now trained its sights on Montreal, after months of salacious allegations about corruption and kickbacks raised at the Charbonneau Commission forced the resignation of three-term mayor Gérald Tremblay and decimated his party — which quickly lost its grip on the majority of council seats.

As it happens, UPAC marked its second anniversary just Monday.

Besides Montreal city hall, investigators raided the borough halls of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, St-Laurent, St-Léonard, Anjou, Lachine and Verdun. All the locations were evacuated as officers swept in.

Vision Montreal opposition leader Louise Harel, who witnessed the arrival of the officers clad in their telltale UPAC jackets, compared it to a “tsunami,” saying to her knowledge it was the first time police officers have raided Montreal city hall.

“Surprise is too weak a word for what is happening today,” Harel said. “Nobody was expecting that. ... We wanted a big cleanup at city hall, now that cleanup is starting and I have confidence in UPAC, I have confidence that they’re working for good reasons, but I don’t know what those reasons are.”

Projet Montréal leader Richard Bergeron said he was scheduled to meet Applebaum at 4:15 to discuss a floral exhibition, but arrived at the mayor’s office to find it full of “authority figures” and deduced the meeting would not be happening.

Bergeron said he was told the raid was connected to a police investigation that dated back to 2010, thus was probably linked to events of 2009 and before, which is when testimony from the Charbonneau Commission indicates corruption was widespread.

“It’s a dark day for Montreal to have police officers raiding city hall; it’s embarrassing, but at the same time it’s necessary,” Bergeron said. It’s also an indication that the measures put in place since 2009 to combat corruption by police and at city hall were working, he said.

Bergeron said he had faith in the police to do their job, and had no reason to doubt Applebaum, he added, noting that just because Applebaum was being questioned didn’t mean he was guilty of a crime.

At Montreal city hall, the fire alarm sounded briefly at about 4:20 p.m., a prelude to an announcement over the building loudspeaker that no current municipal employee or politician can recall hearing inside the storied building on Notre Dame St. E.

“We ask everyone to kindly leave,” a voice said over the loudspeakers that are used only in case of emergency.

City council speaker Harout Chitilian said people at city hall received an email at 4:22 p.m. ordering everyone to leave the building until further notice. Members of city council’s social development committee were meeting on the main floor and dozens of other councillors and civil servants, including secretaries, were working in their offices at the time.

As she stepped out of the committee meeting, coat in hand, councillor Suzanne Décarie says she quickly realized it was a police raid.

Members of UPAC, who had arrived at 4:07 p.m. armed with search warrants, were standing on the ground floor of city hall overseeing the evacuation of the building.

A UPAC officer held back at least one civil servant who was in the crowd heading for the door, said Décarie, a member of opposition Vision Montreal party in Rivière-des-Prairies—Pointe-aux-Trembles borough. “He said: ‘This one stays,’ ” Décarie said. “They seemed to be telling a few people to stay.”

The atmosphere remained calm, she said.

“Everyone was saying they’d never seen anything like it,” Décarie said. “I heard that a lot.”

The anti-corruption squad approached a security guard when they arrived at city hall and immediately asked to speak with someone in charge of the building, Chitilian said.

As council speaker, Chitilian is responsible for city hall. “We were asked to give a directive to the security so they can use the special loudspeakers that are in place for fire alarms or other emergencies to ask the employees and the elected officials to evacuate the building,” he said. “And my office was asked to send an email that the building should be evacuated ‘for exceptional circumstances’ and that the order was active until further notice.”

Bergeron and Harel both stressed that none of the boroughs where their parties are in charge were raided — just those connected to Union Montreal.

And while stunned employees and politicians tweeted pictures and commentary from city hall, simultaneous raids were being conducted elsewhere in the city.

A few blocks away, a single SQ car sat sentinel outside the Saint Paul St. E., offices of the former ruling party, the door to Union Montreal offices guarded by an SQ officer. UPAC investigators arrived about 4 p.m., at which point party staff left the building.

In Côte-des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough, employees were reportedly ordered to stay in their offices as police searched the borough headquarters. A lone Sûreté du Québec cruiser was parked outside and journalists packed the lobby.

An official in the C.D.N.–N.D.G. borough mayor’s office eventually came to explain that UPAC officers were focused on the sixth floor interviewing employees in the borough director’s office, which is responsible for communications and human resources.

Projet Montréal borough councillor Peter McQueen, who was on hand when the operation began, said he went down to see the police at work.

“It raises further questions about that Union Montreal mandate from 2001,” said the borough’s lone opposition councillor.

One SQ car with two officers sat at the front entrance of St-Laurent city hall on Marcel-Laurin Blvd., while another sat at the rear entrance. One officer said city hall was closed and employees had been sent home at 4 p.m.

But three employees at the back of the building said they hadn’t been told anything and finished their day at 4:30, as usual.

A piece of paper posted on the door said all offices in St-Laurent were closed until tomorrow.

It was a similar story at Verdun borough hall where a notice on the door announced the cancellation of a Tuesday night citizens’ meeting. Two SQ detectives emerged from the building at 6:10 p.m. and said no arrests had been made.

As detectives walked through the St-Léonard borough office gathering evidence, two SQ officers sealed the building’s entrances. A handful of borough workers remained on site during the raid, but it appears no one was arrested.

“The police have been here for about two hours,” one city employee told The Gazette around 6:15 p.m. “Obviously, this is very tense and we really have no idea what’s happening.”

The police operation was discreet, with no squad cars parked in the borough office’s parking lot or on surrounding streets.

In Anjou, a borough worker said the officers had been “poking around” the east end building from just before 4 p.m. until past 7:15 p.m.

A patrol car idled in the office’s snowy parking lot while a UPAC cop accompanied a worker to her car.